Every phone number that has messaged your WhatsApp number - searching, filtering, tags and categories, profiles, and jumping to a contact's conversation or calls.
Contacts lists every phone number that has exchanged messages with your connected WhatsApp number. You never build this list by hand: Avox adds a contact automatically the first time a number messages you, calls you, or arrives in your imported chat history.
The page header reads "Your customers' phone numbers are encrypted at rest and only ever visible to your account." and has a Docs button that opens this page.
Under the header, two tabs switch between Contacts (the list) and Tags & categories (see Tags and categories).
The Manager column shows the defaults. An Admin can change them for each person in Settings > Switchboard > Members > Permissions (the See contacts, Edit contacts and See full phone numbers permissions). See Permissions.
Contacts needs a WhatsApp connection. Until your Switchboard has one, the Contacts item in the sidebar (under Messaging) shows a lock, and hovering it shows "Contacts is locked" with "This feature needs a WhatsApp connection first." (AVX-3001). Opening the Contacts address takes you to Connections.
A contact is created for a phone number the first time any of these happens:
Each phone number appears once per Switchboard, however many messages it sends.
Tiles across the top of the page count your contacts:
Click a tile to show just those contacts. The tile stays highlighted and the filter shows above the table; click the tile again, the small x on the filter, or Clear all to go back to everyone.
The Segments sidebar on the left lists All contacts, then every category (with its colour and how many contacts are in it), every tag, and Uncategorised. Click one to show only those contacts. On a phone, tap the button next to the search box (it shows the segment you're in) to open the same list.
The segment you're in is part of the page address, so you can bookmark or share it, and your browser's back button returns to the previous one. When you open a contact from a segment, their profile shows a Back to link (for example "Back to VIP") that returns you to the same list and page.
On a wide screen, the button left of the search box hides or shows the sidebar. Avox remembers your choice on that device.
Contacts are listed with the most recently changed first. Each row shows:
Click anywhere on a row (or select it with Tab and press Enter) to open that contact's profile. The checkbox, the rename pencil and the buttons in the row do their own thing instead.
Each contact has a generated avatar, so the same customer has the same avatar everywhere in Avox: here, on their profile, in the Inbox and on Calls. See Contact avatars.
The table shows 25 contacts per page. When you have more, the footer shows "Page 1 of 4 · 92 contacts" with Previous and Next buttons.
With no contacts yet, the table reads "No contacts yet." An empty segment reads, for example, "Nothing in VIP yet." with Show all contacts.
Use the Category and Tags buttons next to the search box. Each opens a list you can search; tick as many as you like. The table then shows contacts that have any of the ticked categories and any of the ticked tags. The chosen tags and categories show above the table; click the small x on one to drop it, or Clear all to drop every filter. Filters work together with the search box and the count tiles.
Tick the checkbox on the rows you want (the checkbox in the header ticks every contact on the page). A bar appears with:
This works inside a segment too. If the change moves contacts in or out of the segment you're in (for example, removing the category you're looking at), the list refreshes to match.
Up to 200 contacts can be changed at once. A contact can have at most 50 tags and categories; anything over that is skipped and a note says so.
The name you set here is the name your whole team sees across the dashboard - in the Inbox, on Calls, and on Overview.
Find the contact
Search for them, or page through the table.
Click the pencil
Hover the name and click the pencil icon next to it. The name turns into a text box.
Type the new name and save
Type up to 120 characters, then click the check mark. The new name shows straight away, and the Avox Avatar says "Renamed."
To remove a saved name, clear the box and save. The table then shows the phone number instead. A name longer than 120 characters shows "Keep it under 120 characters" under the box.
When your number is connected with Coexistence, contact names saved in the WhatsApp Business app on your phone also sync into Avox. When a contact is added or edited in the app's contact list, Avox picks up that name. See Coexistence sync.
If the name doesn't save, you see "Couldn't save that contact's name. Try again." (AVX-3062). Check your connection and try again.
Type in Search by name or phone number and press Enter. The search works in two ways:
+ are ignored, so +1 (555) 123-4567 and 15551234567 find the same contact.
Anything with 6 or more digits is treated as a phone number search.A phone number search looks for an exact match of the full number. To find someone by a few digits, search by their name instead, or type the full number.
If nothing matches, the table reads "No contacts match these filters." To see everyone again, click the small x on the search above the table, or clear the box and press Enter.
In the Inbox, Profile in the chat header shows the contact's key details, with Open full
profile to come here. You can also link to a search directly: /contacts?q=maria.
Tags and categories help your team group and find customers. Customers never see them.
Open the Tags & categories tab to manage them. Each list shows every tag or category with how many contacts have it, and "12 of 500" at the top (you can have up to 500 of each).
#2f7d56), use
your browser's colour picker, or pick a suggested colour. Any colour works - the text colour adjusts
so it stays readable.You can add and remove tags and categories on a contact's profile, in the Inbox chat header, or on many contacts at once from the list. In each place, typing a name that doesn't exist yet offers Create tag "..." or Create category "..." with a colour pick. Automations can add them too.
Older automations that tag contacts keep working: their tags appear here as regular tags.
Every contact gets a small generated character as their avatar - the same family as the Avox Avatar. It's made for that contact and stays the same everywhere in Avox. Its look follows your tags and categories:
So a category such as "VIP" with its own colour and shape makes those customers easy to spot at a glance in the Inbox, on Calls and here.
Click a contact (or Profile) to open their profile. Under the page title, a Back to link returns you to the list you came from, with the same segment, filters and page (or "Back to all contacts"). At the top:
Below that, three tabs:
On the side:
Every phone number is encrypted before it's stored, and it's decrypted only to show it to members of your own Switchboard who have the See full phone numbers permission (Admins always do; everyone else sees the last 4 digits). The same rule applies on a contact's profile page. Your contacts are never visible to any other Avox account. This is also why a phone number search needs the full number: Avox looks up the number as a whole rather than reading through stored numbers. See Security.
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